The high of 103° observed so far at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport:

Breaks the previous June 7th record of 95° set in 2004.

Was the first 100°+ reading since July 31, 2006.

Was the first 103°+ reading in almost 23 years, since July 31, 1988.

Was tied for the second warmest temperature in the past 69 years (July 31, 1988 with 105° was the only warmer one)

Was the second earliest on record that 103° had occurred, only behind May 31, 1934.

Fell 1° short of the all-time June record of 104° set on June 27th, 1934.

Record Heat:

Tuesday June 7th

A record high was set at Minneapolis on Tuesday, June 7th – The previous record high was 95 degrees set in 2004. The temperature rose to 103 degrees at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport at 326 PM CDT.

This marks the hottest day since 1988 according to NWS records when the mercury hit 105 at MSP Airport on July 31, 1988.

PH

****

Now we know what it’s like to live inside a hair dryer.

The hottest air in the nation hit the Twin cities with blast furnace heat today. We blew the previous record of 95 degrees (2004) for the date out of the water in the Twin Cities today.

Record High Set at Minneapolis on Tuesday, June 7th – The previous record high was 95 degrees set in 2004. The temperature rose to 102 degrees at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport as of 220 PM CDT…and could still rise before the end of the day. The last time it was 102 degrees in the Twin Cities was July 15th 1988.

We also smashed the all time state record for Minnesota today according to an email I received today from my MPR colleague and UM climate guru Dr. Mark Seeley.

“I expect that we will not only see new station record highs this afternoon, but also perhaps a new statewide record high for the date. The all-time record for June 7th is 100 degrees F at Madison and Lamberton in 1987.”

We may not yet be at the day’s high…it could get hotter before 6pm tonight.

Stay cool!

PH

******

Talk about “instant summer.”

-The thermometer at Twin Cities Airport flashed 97 degrees at 5:43pm Monday, marking the hottest day in 2 years for the metro. The last time we hit 97? May 19th 2009.

MAX/MIN TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION TABLE FOR

CENTRAL AND SOUTH CENTRAL MINNESOTA AND WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN

711 AM CDT TUE JUN 7 2011

VALUES REPRESENT HIGHS YESTERDAY…LOWS OVER THE LAST 12 HOURS

AND PRECIPITATION OVER THE LAST 24 HOURS

:

: MAX MIN

:ID LOCATION TEMP TEMP PCPN

EAU : EAU CLAIRE WI : 94 / 67 / 0.00

MSP : MINNEAPOLIS MN : 97 / 78 / 0.00

STC : ST CLOUD MN : 94 / 69 / 0.00

AXN : ALEXANDRIA MN : 91 / 67 / 0.00

MIC : CRYSTAL MN : 95 / 70 / 0.00

FCM : FLYING CLOUD MN : 96 / 75 / 0.00

RWF : REDWOOD FALLS MN : 98 / 74 / 0.00

STP : ST PAUL MN : 94 / 71 / 0.00

:

Twin Cities NWS calls the record below.

-Record High Set at Minneapolis on Monday, June 6th – A record high temperature of 97° was recorded at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport on Monday. The record high temperature occurred at 5:43 pm. This broke the old record of 95 degrees set in 1987 and 1979.

-Temperatures hit the 100 degree mark in Redwood Falls and Fairmont Monday, and pushed well into the upper 90s elswhere.

IN MINNESOTA

:

BTHM5: BLUE EARTH MN : DH0600/ M / 61 / 0.00

CFAM5: CANNON FALLS MN : DH0600/ 93 / 70 / 0.00

MPXM5: CHANHASSEN WFO : DH0600/ 93 / 67 / 0.00

CHKM5: CHASKA NW MN : DH0600/ 95 / 66 / 0.00

FIRM5: FAIRMONT MN : DH0700/ 100 / 74 / 0.00

FORM5: FOREST LAKE MN : DH0700/ 94 / 65 / 0.00

HSTM5: HASTINGS L/D MN : DH0600/ 94 / 70 / 0.00

JORM5: JORDAN MN : DH0530/ 94 / 71 / 0.00

KIMM5: KIMBALL MN : DH0600/ 91 / 62 / 0.00

LNGM5: LONG PRAIRIE MN : DH0600/ 88 / 57 / 0.00

LSAM5: LWR ST ANTHONY MN : DH0600/ 90 / 65 / 0.00

MVDM5: MONTEVIDEO MN : DH0700/ 97 / 65 / 0.00

RDWM5: RED WING L/D MN : DH0520/ 93 / 69 / 0.00

REWM5: REDWOOD FALLS MN : DH0500/ 100 / 65 / 0.00

RCEM5: RICE MN : DH0700/ 93 / 65 / 0.00

Hottest day in 5 years today?

Tuesday has the potential to be the hottest day in 5 years in parts of southern Minnesota. It is highly likely that bank thermometers will flash 100 degrees in several southern Minnesota towns, including a few in the Twin Cities metro area.

The last time the Twin Cities felt 100 degrees was nearly 5 years ago on July 31, 2006. That day the thermometer at MSP Airport blinked a scorching 101 degrees.

One forecast technique we use as meteorologists is to take an air parcel from about 5,000 feet and “mix down” to the surface to forecast maximum temperatures. If you do that today, and we get full sun and everything else goes just right, that technique yields a high temperature between 100 to 104 degrees in southern Minnesota today. We may not get that high, but the air mass is capable of that kind of heat!

Excessive Heat Warning:

We don’t get many EHW’s in Minnesota, but this dangerously hot high pressure dome warrants the warning today.

The cirteria for the NWS to issue excessive heat warnings in the metro is fairly straight forward.

I worked in Chicago during the infamous killer 1995 Chicago heat wave and covered the event along with meteorologist Tom Skilling for WGN-TV. Over 700 people died that week, and we learned that heat is cumulative on the human body. If you can’t cool off at night, your body just can’t keep up with daytime temps that feel like or exceed 100 degrees.

One of the main features of that killer heat wave was that nighttime temperatures never dropped below 81 degrees for a few days, and that just didn’t give people a chance to cool down. Many elderly victims succumbed to the heat inside red brick apartments that acted like ovens in the oppressive heat.

Needless to say take care today to stay cool, and check on elderly friends, neighbors and relatives to see that they are cool.

More records will fall today:

The record high of 95 degrees today in the metro (set back in 2004) will almost certainly fall today. Here are some additional records that are likely to fall today.

Mercifully our barbaric heat blast will be brief. A cold front will sail through tomorrow and drop temperatures 20 degrees in southern Minnesota.

Smoke from Arizona fires visible in Minnesota today?

You may notice a whitish tint to the sky today, and vivid colors at sunset tonight.

The smoke plume from the massive wildfires in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona has travelled over a thousand miles and should filter into Minnesota today. The smoke was already visible in Iowa Monday, and brisk southerly winds today should inject the plume right into Minnesota.

The Wallow Fire (named after the area in which the fire began) is massive and growing on hot dry Arizona winds.

During the 9 years I spent in Arizona well over a million acres of prime Ponderosa Pine forest went up in smoke before my eyes. I covered the tragic firestorm in the town of Summerhaven in the Santa Catalina Mountains live on air in Tucson on June 20, 2003.

In “marginal climate zones” like the mountains of Arizona you can’t help wonder if we’re witnessing the effects of climate change right before our eyes as millions of acres of forests that have stood for hundreds or thousands of years go up in smoke before our eyes.

About the blogger

Paul Huttner is chief meteorologist for Minnesota Public Radio. Huttner has worked TV and radio stations in Minneapolis, Tucson and Chicago. Paul is a graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul and holds a bachelor’s degree in geography with an emphasis in meteorology.

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Interesting temperature observation yesterday. We live in Stillwater–more specifically, down in the valley near the river, rather than “up the hill” as the locals say. Temp at 5pm was 84 at our house (verified on two thermometers) with very little wind and in the mid-90s elsewhere in the region. I am also sensitive to airborne pollutants and noticed that I had developed a slight cough and scratchy throat. Given the conditions, could this have been a temperature inversion with colder air and pollutants being trapped in the valley by a layer of hot air above?

Chris B. Critter

It looks like the mixing is doing the job. At KMSP today:

0953 CDT 87F, winds S at 9

1153 CDT 95F, winds S at 12 G 18

I just called KMSP ASOS, and it’s 37C (98/99F), winds S 17G24 (dewpoint is 16C/60F, so we’re drying, which will help the temperature go up more faster). And, if you keep track of things, the air is getting very thin: altimeter is 29.55 in Hg.

Steve

Look at those all time high temps. What the heck was going on from 1931-1940? Bad thermometer?

RalfW

I’m always curious about the morning minimums, too. This a.m. the “low” was 78, for less than an hour by the looks of things. What’s the record warm minimum for today?

Thanks.

Aaron

@Steve

The 1930’s were very very hot. No thermometer problems, it was also spread across the whole country. One of the contributing factors to the Dust Bowl era. However I have not found a decent explanation why that decade was so hot.

@Paul Huttner

Looks like they got a 103 reading at the airport. Hottest day in 71 years. Last time was 7/23/1940

Randall

Hottest day in 71 years? Above you say it reached 105 in 1988. What am I missing?

Paul Huttner

Looks like they got a 103 reading at the airport. Hottest day in 71 years. Last time was 7/23/1940

Posted by Aaron | June 7, 2011 5:07 PM

Aaron:

Accroring to NWS MSP hit 105 on July 31, 1988. That still makes this the hottest day since then…23 years ago.

PH

Aaron

As you all know in heat like this, reading is difficult if not impossible.

Also it was 103 degrees 71 years ago. That 105 in 1988 is definitely hotter and more recent.

Disco

Here’s a good question for someone with mad SQL skills:

When is the last time we beat a record by 8 degrees? That in itself could be a record!

Ecology Fan

Where are the climate-change deniers who usually chime in abotu now? People will look for the tiniest shred of evidence to support a more-comfortable view (i.e., that we don’t have to change what we’re doing to the planet, that this is all part of a natural cycle.

The other day I saw a comment about the Chilean volcanic eruption: a minor eruption at best, yet someone pondered (as if she were the first person ever to have the intelligence to utter such a clever insight): “I wonder how much carbon dioxide nature pours into the environment compared to us puny humans.” One person burning a fire may be individually puny but collectively billions of us burning tons and tons of fossil fuels are doing a number on our planet, no doubt about it.

I’d much rather someone say, “I know we’re doing this to the planet and I don’t care” than someone who ignores the mountain of evidence against them to champion the one jot of information that supports their view! At least the former are being intellectually consistent instead of just sticking their heads in the sand. It’s the stupidity of the latter that gets Bush, Bachmann and Palin into elected office.